The piercing honk of an air horn tore my attention away from my typewriter.

I stepped up and looked out the ocean view of my window, and there she was. The siren that the local legends warned about.

I opened the window.

“Yoo-hoo!” she cried, giving the air horn another squeeze.

“Will you stop that racket!?” I shouted back. “I’m trying to finish something.”

“Come down here and make me!” she responded, her horn tooting fearlessly.

I groaned, slipping my shoes on. Clearly I was going to have to nip this problem in the bud before I lost sleep over it.

I stormed over to the beach in a huff. Her raucous laughter and horn calls intensified, then slowed.

“Give me that,” I demanded.

“Heehee. I don’t think I will.”

“Why are you even out here on private property? Shouldn’t you be off seducing some frat boy down the coast?”

“I got your attention, didn’t I?”

“Well that’s for sure!”

“Darling, don’t you know what I am? I’m a siren! Sirens are made to capture peoples’ attention! Nobody said they had to do it sexily.”

“Ngh…” I pouted. “I guess that’s true.”

“And if anything, you should be glad I did so. God only knows how long you’ve been spending all day on that… what were you finishing?”

“A memoir.”

“Ah, yes. No matter. Because of me, you got a little fresh air! A little vitamin D! So stay a while. We can chat for a little bit.”

Her voice was undeniably pretty. Dangerously so, if the legends are true. But it’s not like she’s dragging me into the ocean as of yet…

I knelt down and sat on the sand.

“There you go,” she said. “Just relax. I’ll even put down the air horn now that you’re comfortable.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course. I’ve honestly been waiting to chat with someone. You’re a writer?”

“Yes.”

“So you’re probably familiar with sirens in literature. They’re everywhere. Depictions are at least as old as the Odyssey, for heavens’ sake! And there’s so much that the stories get wrong, wrong, wrong…”

I laid back and closed my eyes and listened to her continue hyperfixating. It was nice, having her intonations and inflections lull my mind into-

I jolted awake as her hand rested on my chest.

“Darling, it’s okay. Go back to sleep. As I was saying…”

I obeyed, my body giving into the exhaustion I was previously unwilling to acknowledge, as she continued her soothing rant.

Distantly, I felt the ocean waves tickle my feet…

And then more of my body…

And then…